GUWAHATI, April 9: The Manas Tigers Team of Manas National Park, a mobile patrol team formed by the forest department of Bodoland Territorial Council in March 2016, has been conferred the “highly commended” award at the International Ranger Awards (IRA), 2021.
The IRA is developed collaboratively between the IUCN-WCPA (International Union for Conservation of Nature – World Commission on Protected Areas), the International Ranger Federation, Global Wildlife Conservation, and Conservation Allies, which was created in 2020, with an aim to highlight and felicitate the extraordinary work that rangers do in protected and conserved areas worldwide.
This year, 10 outstanding winners were selected from among 113 nominations across 43 countries. These nominations spanned 630 rangers: 68 individual nominations and 45 team nominations.
In addition, 19 rangers and teams from around the world, which included the Manas Tigers Team, have been recognised with special commendations for their contributions to protected and conserved areas.
All the winners are rangers in protected and conserved areas and are residents of the countries in which they work.
It may be mentioned that the Manas Tigers Team was provided capacity building training to patrol in the eastern range of the park (Bhuyanpara Range).
“The training included patrol observations recording training, GPS usage, map reading, compass reading and navigation, first aid training, emergency medical situation handling, crime scene handling, camera trap deployment training, snake bite management, snare combing tactics, drawing of wildlife crime offences and forensics by Aaranyak, a wildlife and biodiversity conservation NGO, with support from other project partners,” a statement issued on Friday said.
The 12-member team has been nominated by Aaranyak for the award.
Besides, Aaranyak has been regularly providing refreshers training to the team for smooth functioning.
The team besides their core law enforcement duty has also carried out community engagement activities and conversation education activities in the fringe areas.
Moreover, two members of the Manas Tigers Team, Raphael Narzary and Raju Kherkatary were selected to participate in the World Ranger Congress’19, held at Chitwan, Nepal organised by International Ranger Federation (IRF) where they presented their work.